Summary
Around 9:15 p.m., each narrator experiences the bang of the ship being hit by three torpedoes from Russian submarines. Glass breaks, alarms go off, and the tilt of the ship gradually increases as its nose goes under.
Joana wants to wait for instructions but Emilia realizes the ship is sinking and springs into action. She puts on a life vest and grabs the baby. She throws life vests to the women in the maternity wards and tells them to put their coats on.
A woman holds her baby out to Alfred and asks for help. But he just grabs a life vest for himself and tells them they should probably leave. He takes a coat from a woman who is struggling with her life vest. He is told to help passengers go up to the deck but instead he descends, looking for the interior ladders inside the ventilation ducts.
Pandemonium ensues. The corridor is jammed with passengers. Thousands are trapped on the lower decks. People fall and their bodies crunch underfoot. Florian picks up Klaus and together with Heinz they try to make their way up to the top deck. The strap of Florian’s pack snaps.
By the time Emilia reaches the top deck, the nose of the Gustloff is already underwater. She tries to comfort Halinka. The deck is slick with ice and passengers slip and fall into the sea. People cry and fight. Some dive off the ship rather than waiting for the boats. Many lifeboats are unusable. Sailors lower lifeboats filled with passengers into the sea, but some don’t release properly and the passengers drown.
Florian, Heinz, Joana, Emilia, and Alfred find each other up on deck. Joana directs the pregnant women onto a lifeboat. Florian tells Joana and Emilia to get into a lifeboat with Halinka. Heinz tells them to take Klaus. Joana gets into the lifeboat and reaches up for the baby but Emilia refuses. She only trusts Florian to carry Halinka to safety. Florian gives his pack to Alfred and descends to the lifeboat with Emilia’s baby.
There is only room for one more person and they motion for Emilia but she instead sends Klaus. Heinz jumps into the water after them and drowns. Emilia releases two rafts that are stuck together with ice. She takes Alfred with her and they release the raft into the sea.
Analysis
The “BANG!” that each narrator experiences as the Gustloff is torpedoed by Russian submarines parallels the bang that each narrator experiences at the beginning of the novel. In the opening scenes of Salt to the Sea, Sepetys introduces the reader to four different narrators who are strangers to each other. Some are more persecuted while others are more privileged due to their different identities and social positions. Yet each is in danger, as indicated by the bang of gunshots and artillery that each hears.
Now, as each narrator feels the “bang” of torpedoes, their lives have become increasingly intertwined. Joana and Florian are in love. They help to care for and protect Emilia. Florian is depending on Alfred’s help to escape the Nazi soldiers he fears. Throughout Salt to the Sea, the four narrators continue to have more or fewer privileges depending on their position in the Nazi’s social hierarchy. However, faced with death on the sinking ship, all are equal.
Just when many of the novel’s main characters start to feel that things may finally be coming together for them, the Gustloff begins to sink. Joana feels safe on the sturdy boat and wonders if the troubles of war may be finally behind her. Heinz feels motivated by caring for Klaus. Alfred feels that Florian has recognized his superior qualities. Emilia finally feels cared for and wonders if the storm may finally be behind her.
As the narrators face the likelihood of death, they reveal their deepest concerns. Joana thinks of the baby and Klaus and wonders what to do. Florian thinks of Emilia and his pack with the amber swan. Alfred wonders if he’ll get the medal that Florian promised him. Emilia thinks of Florian with the baby and she feels confident that he’ll be a savior.
Right before the Gustloff’s alarm bells go off, the speakers play cheerful melodies followed by a radio broadcast celebrating the twelfth anniversary of Hitler’s appointment as chancellor. The only bit of German that Emilia understands is, “When was the helpless goose ever not eaten by the fox?” Nazi propaganda uses a natural metaphor to promote its false ideology that the Germans are a superior master race that will dominate all other races.
When the alarm bells go off, Emilia realizes that the omen of her burning, sinking wreath was right after all. Later, when she gets into a raft with Alfred, she watches the water swallow the Gustloff and reflects on how foolish we are to believe that we are more powerful than the sea or the sky. This resonates with her earlier statement that neither the Nazis nor the Russians can stop the natural elements like the sun or snow. While each side goes to war confident of their superior power, they will never be more powerful than nature. In this way, in Salt to the Sea both death and nature represent great equalizers.
Even before the ship starts to sink, Alfred becomes increasingly sick and cruel. He is overcome with seasickness and continually vomits. He collapses on the floor amid a group of refugees. A little girl makes fun of him and he calls her stupid. He rips one eye off of her stuffed bear, almost as if this would make the bear unable to see his weakness.
When the ship begins to sink, Alfred thinks only of himself. He grabs a life jacket for himself rather than assisting a mother and baby who ask for his help. He steals a coat from a woman who is struggling with her life jacket. Rather than fulfilling his duty to assist others onto the deck, he decides to look for his own route to safety. Once he reaches the deck, Alfred admits that somewhere inside, he does not want death’s melody to end. In the end we learn that the root of Alfred’s hatred is his sadness and pain.
